I am a member of Lakeview Quilters Guild and have been since probably 1997. In this guild are some very well-known quilters.

One such quilter is the amazingly talented Cynthia England! I am also honored to call her my friend! Cynthia has won Best of Show at Houston International Quilt Show she really is quite good at what she does.

So…..several years ago when she contacted me to quilt a traditional quilt for her, needless to say I was scared! Yikes, this was Cynthia freaking England! I think the first quilt I did for her was an Irish Chain in lavender and creams. There have been many over the years that I have quilted for her and they are always fun to do because her borders are flat, her piecing is excellent – well you get it.

She had even come over to my house to borrow my Gammill to quilt 2 of her show quilts, One Fine Day and Through Tuscany. You have no idea how excited I was to see these quilts hang in shows and be able to think – YIKES – those were quilted on my machine (even if I had not done the quilting). I know I am a true quilt NERD! You will all be happy to know that Cynthia has been the proud owner of her own Gammill since September 2008 – I was there while they delivered it! (and hurricane Ike came to visit just a few days after that!) Cynthia lives on a bayou and was out-of-town when Ike hit, but her family moved her Gammill head and a large portion of her fabric stash upstairs. Thankfully IKE was kind to the England homestead!

In 2009 or 2010 Cynthia mentioned to me that she was working on a new book and wanted me to quilt one of the quilts for the book, I said well OK! She eventually got the quilt to me and I eventually got the quilt done, however the book was not ready to be born yet. Then in 2012 she started getting really serious about the book, Richard Larsen and I quilted most of the quilts for the book. I think I quilted 11 of the projects in the book! The book is designed to use smaller amounts of her picture piecing in traditional quilts. The book has all the patterns for the quilts and pre-printed freezer papers are also available for your convenience. Cynthia’s photographer for the book, Michael McCormick, did a fabulous job of not only capturing the quilts, but the quilting. Cynthia’s goal was to provide a book that was more than just patterns and she did that and so much more.

But back to that original quilt – sadly it did not make it into the book – Cynthia determined that she wanted the book to focus on traditional quilts with minimal picture piecing. The original quilt did not make the cut! (But you can see photos at the end of this post!)

Cynthia has been a guest on “Simply Quilts” with Alex Anderson and has been a guest twice on “The Quilt Show” with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, the 2nd show just launched last week and for a few days you can preview it here even if you are not a member of “The Quilt Show”. I have received a couple of notes that my name is mentioned – YIKES again!

Well here are the promised photos of the Roses Quilt and then I am going to sit down with a good cup of coffee and watch “The Quilt Show” episode #1412

Just getting started – Cynthia had provided a drawing with feathers meandering through the roses

Adding some more feathers

A better look….

At one time Cynthia thought she might want photos of me “quilting” the quilt – so glad she changed her mind on that!